Furling of working sails has historically been accomplished by direct manual manipulation of the sail, requiring that one or more of the crew go forward (in the case of a headsail) or at least out of the cockpit (in the case of a mainsail). Prior-art workers long sought improved sail systems and methods to overcome the disadvantages of manual furling, but until the invention disclosed in my aforementioned copending application, only the so-called "roller furling" method had achieved any substantial success, and roller furling has left much to be desired because of the high cost of the system, the need for relatively complicated hardware aside from the sail, and the fact that such systems are inappropriate for mainsails.
According to the method and sail system disclosed in my aforementioned application, working sails are furled aloft by providing flexible sheet material extending along the sail from head to foot, employing a travelling furler to at least preliminarily furl the sail from leech to luff, progressively forming the flexible sheet material into a tubular bag extending from head to foot and enclosing the furled sail, and progressively securing the bag against opening. In particularly advantageous embodiments of that invention, the sail is in a new form having a double luff, slide fastener tapes are secured along the two portions of the double luff, and the furler is moved from head to foot to furl the sail, form the tubular bag and close the slide fastener to secure the bag, the furler being moved downwardly, to furl, by pulling furling lines, and upwardly, to unfurl, by pulling an unfurling line, the furling and unfurling lines being outside of the bag when the sail has been furled and bagged. While the sail system and method has proved highly advantageous in actual use, two disadvantages have been encountered. The first disadvantage is the fact that hardware extraneous to the sail itself and in addition to that required simply to hoist and fly the sail must be provided. While the additional hardware is minimal, it still requires purchase outside of the sail loft and additional installation aloft. The second disadvantage is presence of the furling and unfurling lines outside of the tubular bag when the sail, having been furled and bagged, is left aloft. So disposed, the lines sometimes tend to flap in the wind and, when the bagged sail is lowered, must be either secured aloft (the travelling furler then being removed from the furled and bagged sail and remaining attached to the lines), or taken down and stowed. While these disadvantages are minor in comparison with those encountered with prior-art furling gear, they have still posed a need for improvement.